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Wednesday, 7 November 2012

A White Chippy Footstool

Well hello, do I have a classic for you today? Those of you on instagram will know that I recently bought an Ikea Ektorp sofa for my 'empty room'. I love it to bits. It's so nice to have a little area where I can sit and read. Problem is you need somewhere to put your cup of tea or glass of wine where it won't get knocked over.

I have seen so many lovely chippy stools on blogs and pinterest, so I decided that's what I needed. Well I didn't need to look any further than the storage area above the garage and I found one.

This was the stool my husband made at school for woodworking. Do they still even do woodworking as a subject anymore? It has his name and class 10GA1 written underneath.

Look at that handywork. How good is that glue joint? Despite appearances, it's actually a very solid and sturdy stool, so I gave it a lick of paint and a little roughen up.

How I did it

Step 1 - Lightly sand and give the stool a coat of burnt umber paint (I use Jo Sonja's acrylic). I wanted a deep brown to come through rather than the orange colour.

Step 2 - Give the stool a couple of coats of white paint. I used Dulux aqua-enamel in Whisper White.

This is an instagram photo I took while I was doing it.

Step 3 - Roughen it up a bit. Sand the edges and use a screwdriver or blade to scratch some paint off. Kristen from The Painted Hive uses a surfboard wax comb. Mine ended up looking like this:

Some of my favourite books and a rose from the garden, and it's all pretty.

Even my husband is happy with it. I did ask him if I could paint it first ... just in case.

I'll be back in a couple of days to share the best pancake recipe for the weekend ... yum. Don't forget my tin hearts giveaway is still open. You can enter here.

What a gorgeous little table, love little projects like this one! Woodwork & metal work are still part of the curriculum, my son just brought home a very chunky candle holder made from timber & copper : ) Jodi

Lovely job, it looks great and you did such a fab job on the vintage paint look! May I ask which cover colour did you get on your Ektorp? Is it white? Does it wash ok? I need a new cover for ours but am stuck on which colour to get, two messy boys make it kind of tricky. Hope your having a great week! Rx

I bought the white one. I have 2 kids and a black dog who are suppose to use our brown leather couch not MY white one, but they keep sitting on it. At the moment it is covered with black fur. I haven't washed it yet, but Cas from Peaches & Maple told me hers washes up really well everytime. I do keep a cotton throw over the seat parts which helps, but the arms are getting dirty.